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The article deals with the semiotics of the pink ribbon in relationship to breast cancer while providing a brief history of the use of the pink ribbon and its adaptation and acceptance as an internationally known icon for advocacy and advertising.

Inroduction
The semiotics of breast cancer is readily exemplified through the symbol of the pink ribbon. Since its inception, the pink ribbon has come to be recognized as an international symbol for the disease.

Semiotics
The pink ribbon serves as a symbolic signifier for the disease of breast cancer. Symbols have four primary functions when serving as rhetoric in social campaigns:explanation, awareness, identification, and sanction. The pink ribbon also serves as a multidimensional signifier for breast cancer, involving the color and the shape of the ribbon. Pink has long been associated with things feminine. The curve and loop of the ribbon are associative with the curve of a woman's body. The loop is indicative of a circle, and culturally represents a sense of community. Color codification further helps to use color to advance ideas and goals. The pink ribbon has come to symbolize social activism, corporate philanthropy,corporate products and ideologies about women. In the work, “Pink!: Community, Contestation, and the Colour of Breast Cancer,” Charlene Elliot states: “Pink, for instance, is currently employed to call forth the ‘visualization’ of a disease and all things pertaining to it: the pink ribbon and pink per se are used to connote breast cancer, breast cancer awareness, the search for the cure, the community of women afflicted by breast cancer, the survivors, support for the cause, and so forth.”

Pink ribbon history
Elliot attributes the link between pink, the pink ribbon, and breast cancer as resulting from a grass root movement in 1990 that originating with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. At the group’s first Race for the Cure event in New York City, pink visors were handed out to participants in the organizations Race for the Cure. By the next year, the Komen Foundaton was passing out pink ribbons. Origin of the ribbon has also been attributed to a partnership between the Estee Lauder and Self magazine, in conjuncture with Self's 1992 second annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue. In 1993 the international cosmetic company, Avon, launched a pink ribbon pin promotion to raise funds for breast cancer. By 2005, the color pink's recognition for breast cancer had gone international, with landmarks ranging from Graceland to the Leaning Tower of Pisa being illuminated in pink light in support of the cause.

Adaptation into advertising
The work of Cordona and Halliday examined the adoption of the pink ribbon by marketers, who recognized that it serves as a recognizable icon for breast cancer. Pink and the pink ribbon are culturally representative of breast cancer and marketers recognize that involvement in high profile causes boost sales and help create tight connections with consumers. Cardona and Halliday refer to a study by General Motors that indicated that 75 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase a vehicle from a marketer linked to a relevant cause and that breast cancer was top on the list for health concerns among the general public.

Conclusion
The color pink has a strong cultural recognition with femininity and the sign of the pink ribbon as the symbol for breast cancer represents sisterhood,support,connection, and community. The image of the pink ribbon has infiltrated world cutlure and advertising and currently serves as an effective sign to represent all aspects of breast cancer.